Every road and bridge we build includes an ongoing commitment to maintenanc­e. Repairing roads, plowing snow (clearing rockfalls and blown sand/dirt?­), painting and inspecting bridges – and repairing structural weaknesses – and then there is traffic management­, which is becoming a science all its own.

If driving surfaces are allowed to deteriorate, the cost of vehicle damage goes up, as does the possibility of accidents – which leads to higher insurance costs. Not keeping traffic lanes clear also leads to accidents, congestion (and higher fuel costs) and reduced accessibility to emergency services. Without a protective coat of paint, metal bridges rust, corrode, and become less safe and more expensive to keep in service.

Population growth leads to increased congestion, which means wasted gas, higher demand/prices, more air pollution, wasted time and lost productivity, frustration and road rage.

Minneapolis bridge collapse

But we are rapidly using up the land, and there are both financial and physical limits to expanding our transporta­tion infrastruc­ture. It is inevitable that we begin shifting back to mass transporta­tion of some type.

After Katrina, New Orleans had an opportunit­y to redesign the city and its transporta­tion system in a more effective and protected manor. I was disappoint­ed that the possibilit­y was never seriously discussed.

A few years ago, there was only one train route that would carry cars piggyback. With growing congestion­, drowsy driving, and road rage, it seems like a good idea to be able to park your car on a train and let someone else do the driving. If it cost little more than gas, tolls, and an overnight stay – and you could eat, sleep, work, read, study, surf the Internet, or even just watch the landscape go by, and not worry about traffic, turnoffs, or accidents, it would seem like a really good deal for longer trips. Being able to pack your own vehicle and have it there when you arrive would beat the heck out of flying if time was not critical.

Higher gas mileage undermines the effectiven­ess of gas taxes to fund transporta­tion costs. The correspondence between gallons of gas and miles driven is becoming variable. One solution that has been floated is to track vehicles by GPS and charge by the mile. I would rather pay a mileage tax when renewing my vehicle plates than have my every movement tracked and recorded by GPS.Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The FAA shut down over House Republicans’ insistence on including anti-union provisions in the agency’s re-authorization bill and the airlines are poised to collect $1.3 billion or more of extra profits in forgone taxes. With the FAA unable to collect the $28.6 million a day in aviation taxes it usually takes in, some of the […]

This has become a most interesting situation.

CANTOR: And what airlines have done is have stepped in and said, well, if we’re not going to pay that money to the federal government, we’re going to keep it towards our own bottom line. And I guess that’s what business does.

This is not just an admission that businesses are predatory, but that conservatives approve of it. But where does the Fair Tax Act come in? Because the Fair Tax is based partly on the premise that 23% of the price of a product is due to business taxes, and if the business is relieved of that tax burden it will reduce the price 23%. Cantor has just admitted that businesses won’t do that, because keeping the money (or as much as they can get away with) is how business works.

About

Like most people, I spent the first part of my life focused on education, building a career, and building a life. It left little time to pay close attention to politics. But with the turn of the decade, the turn of the century, the turn of the millennium, I saw evidence of a change in the country so radical that I could no longer ignore it. It is time for the silent majority to be silent no more, and this is my contribution to our future as a nation.